Swell_Ioanna_Karystiani
2012 Longlist

Swell

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

The moment of reckoning has come for Captain Mitsos Avgustìs. After twelve years at sea it is time to go home to the island on which he was born: home to his wife Flora, his two daughters, his son, a granddaughter he has never met, and Litsa, his lover from all those years ago; a modern-day Penelope awaiting the return of her Ulysses. It will take all Avgustìs’s courage and strength to face the squalls and storms on land after a lifetime at sea—and all the while, he must resist the ocean’s siren song bidding him return, tempting him back to the cargo vessel, the Athos III, that he so reluctantly left. It is there that his demons lurk, there that his terrible secrets are buried, there that his true home lies.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Ioanna
Karystiani

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Konstantine
Matsoukas

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

An elderly captain refuses to retire from his ship. Through his vivid narration a great story unfolds in the seas of … From one of the best Greek women writers with a lyrical and poetical voice. A novel about love and hope, set in modern day Greece. Augustus will learn that no matter how many or how varied one’s experience of life has been, there is always something new to learn.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
Greece
Original Language
Greek
Publisher
Europa Editions
Translator
Konstantine Matsoukas

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